Penn State Football: James Franklin Delivers Pizza To Nittanyville Following Radio Show

James Franklin took to the stage at Damon's Thursday night for his weekly radio show -- answering fan questions leading up to this weekend's home opener against Akron. Afterwards, the Penn State football coach made the short drive up the hill to Beaver Stadium for a visit to Nittanyville. And he didn't come empty handed. Franklin delivered armloads of pizza to the Nittanyville campers before taking a short tour around the tent city.

Here are some of the highlights from his radio show as well as a video of his brief visit to Nittanyville on Thursday night.

On Akron

"I've been very impressed with Akron. They've got a veteran staff. They've got a real athletic team. The defense is undersized but they run as well as anybody I've ever seen. This is a team that expects to win. They're not going to be intimidated coming into this venue. Their QB is playing at a high level right now, they're going to try to get the ball out of his hands quick, a lot of screens."

Is this Franklin's first Penn State game?

"I know this is pathetic. Forty-two years I've had this hole in me and I'll have an opportunity to fill that void this Saturday. I've never been there as a fan, as a player, as a coach, ever. In high school I thought I was good enough to play here, Jim Caldwell was the QB coach and told me I wasn't. My first experience was the Blue-White Game. I'm going to enjoy it for that 30 seconds running out onto the field and then it's over, it's back to work."

Franklin on his famous No.1 gesture.

"I wanted to do something --I'm big on branding-- I was looking for something to do. We're at the museum and there's a lion statue and he's throwing up the No. 1 and I said 'Wouldn't that be great?' We talk to players about staying in the moment. We want our guys to take it one play at a time -- give me everything you've got for six seconds. Take it one play at a time, day at a time, class at a time, game at a time. It's also about expectations. We also want to have the No. 1 graduating class in the country."

The value of Twitter.

"It's amazing what these recruits put on Twitter. You can learn a lot about a guy. We see kids posting ignorant things on twitter and we tell them to modify their behaviors, or we'll move on. We've dropped kids because of that. College admissions are looking at these things now, job applications. For me, it's a way to get our message out to 80,000 followers, with favorites and retweets, you have no idea how far it's going to go."

Reasoning for Sunday practices.

"The reason we do that is we really love on Sunday to be able to make the corrections from Saturday and move on and put it behind us. Then they're able to use all of Monday for game-planning and no interrutpions. Players get a day off and choose what they want to do. Sunday we practice later enough in the day the players can go to church or do whatever they want earlier in the day. Monday they can load up and take an extra class or schedule a night class. It creates more flexiblity for them and for us in terms of getting prepared."

331 campers signed up for the first week of one of the greatest traditions in college football on Wednesday night. Now called Nittanyville, the campout outside Beaver Stadium Gate A has become a sign of true fandom and a badge of honor for many of the biggest Nittany Lion fans.

Students were outside Gate A late last night preparing to set their tents up at the 11 PM start time which would signifi